


Chefs and Vegetables (AKA The Lasagne Fic)

by Lkw88



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 13:10:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16137932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lkw88/pseuds/Lkw88
Summary: This takes place a few days after the ''I love you''s and the 'lasagne incident'. (someone had to write a fic about it, right? :P ) Charity makes Vanessa a lasagne as an apology for the one she unceremoniously chucked in the bin. (I'm usually far better at writing angsty stuff than I am at writing the more lighthearted stuff, so I hope I've managed to pull this off relatively well. Also, apologies to anyone who may be annoyed by my choice to spell 'lasagne' in the English way rather than the American way :P )





	Chefs and Vegetables (AKA The Lasagne Fic)

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments or constructive criticism would be very much welcome :) Hope people enjoy it!

‘’Lasagne!’’ Charity practically bellows as she forcefully shoves her way through the door into the Woolpack kitchen.

Marlon jumps about a foot in the air at her sudden intrusion, nearly dropping an entire pan of God-knows-what in the process. Charity would, under any other circumstances, have found herself throwing her head back and cackling. But not today. Today she’s very much a woman on a mission.

‘’Sorry, what?’’ Marlon’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as he carefully places the pan back onto the hob ‘’I didn’t think you were at work tod..’’

‘’You heard me. _Lasagne_.’’ Charity crosses her arms in front of her, staring him down with a firm nod.

There’s a fleeting pause whilst Marlon looks at her as though she’s suddenly sprouted another head. But Charity barely even registers it. She’s been looked at far worse by people in the past, after all. And there are far more important things for her to be currently concerning herself with.

‘’Erm..we don’t actually have lasagne on the menu. So if a customer’s requested it then you’ll have to tell the…’’

‘’Not for a bloody customer, Marlon!!‘’ She throws her hands up in dramatic exasperation. ‘’Try to keep up for once, yeah? I need a lasagne recipe. And not one of them ridiculously complicated ‘spend seven hours in the kitchen like Nigella flamin’ Lawson’ ones either.’’ She screws her face up in disgust at the mere thought of it. ’’ A simple one. Like, really simple.’’ ( _So simple even a complete screw-up like me couldn’t mess it up_ , Charity thinks to herself.)

‘’Right. Okay…’’ Marlon looks suitably perplexed. ‘’Well, lasagne is actually really complicated and time consuming to make in general, so even the simplest of recipes means…’’

‘’Marlon!’’ Charity barks out, using her best ‘I am Charity Dingle: hear me roar!’ voice.

‘’Okay’’ Marlon holds his hands up as though he‘s being held hostage and is trying to calmly reason with his captor. ‘’I think I still have a recipe at home which I used when I was just starting out. It’s pretty basic. Although, like I said, even the most basic of recip..’’

‘’I swear, if you don’t go home _right now_ and get me that recipe, I’ll…’’ Charity pauses, more for dramatic effect than anything else. Because, she might be the happiest she’s ever been right now, but that certainly doesn’t mean she can’t still enjoy striking the fear of God into people. Marlon in particular.‘’….fire you on the spot!’’ She finishes smugly.

‘’Okay, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Charity, but there are hungry customers out _there_ ’’ Marlon gestures in the direction of the bar ’’who are, as we speak, waiting for me to finish cooking their lunch for them.’’ He gestures back towards the hob.

Charity has had enough at this point. She’s in ‘operation-make-it-up-to-amazing-girlfriend-for-unceremoniously-chucking-her-entire-lasagne-in-the-bin-whilst-having-a-temper-tantrum’ mode. And an entire bar full of hungry customers certainly isn’t going to stand in her way. It takes only a few strides before she’s standing over the hobs, roughly turning each switch off one by one.

‘’There!’’ She says, swivelling back to Marlon pointedly. ‘’Now you’re not cooking _anything_. So you can trot yourself off home and get me the recipe, can’t you?’’

‘’But…!’’ Marlon is practically spluttering at this point, gesturing almost forlornly towards the many pots and pans.

‘’I swear, if you say another sentence that doesn’t involve the words ‘Here, Charity, I got you that recipe you asked for’ I’m going to disembowel you with _this_.’’ Charity picks up the nearest piece of kitchen equipment she can find, before adding ‘’Whatever… _this_ …is.’’

‘’It’s a _ladle_ …’’ Marlon looks at Charity in absolute horror at her complete lack of even the most basic level of culinary knowledge. ‘’Look, are you sure you want to attempt this on your own…’’

‘’Marlon.‘’ Charity says calmly, despite the whole ‘disemboweling a relative with a ladle’ option becoming more and more of an appealing prospect as time goes on. ‘’You’ve got three seconds to walk out of that door and get me the recipe, and I’m about to start counting faster than you’ve ever heard anyone count before.’’

Charity doesn’t even get to the count of one before Marlon cautiously backs out of the kitchen door and scurries off.

 _Still got it_ , Charity thinks to herself proudly as she watches him go.

\--------------

Several hours later, which had involved Charity snatching the crumpled recipe out of Marlon’s hands as soon as he’d walked back through the door, a trip to David’s shop to pick up the monumentally intimidating list of ingredients (whilst simultaneously throwing David as many of her well-practiced death stares as she possibly could in solidarity with Tracy) a rushed phone call with Tracy herself to inform her that she would, in no uncertain terms, be picking Moses and Johnny up from nursery and clearing off to Frank’s for the night, Charity finds herself sitting in Vanessa’s kitchen surveying the damage.

There’s dirty pots and pans and various kitchen implements strewn all over the counter top, Charity’s favourite top is intermittently smeared with a not-so-delightful combination of cheese and meat sauce, and she’s pretty sure the stress has caused her to age by around twenty years.

But the lasagne is in the oven, and from what Charity has seen whilst sitting cross legged on the kitchen floor and anxiously watching it cook through the glass door for the past seven centuries ( _She’s pretty sure she’s not even exaggerating there. Why do people even bother to do this when you can just pick a lasagne up from Tesco and shove it in the bloody microwave for five minutes_?) it doesn’t actually look too bad. In fact, she thinks, it’s pretty much done and the only thing missing is…

‘’Hey, what are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at yours later?’’ Vanessa walks through the door and greets her with a surprised smile that instantly and inexplicably makes all the hours of frustratedly swearing at anything and everything in sight worthwhile.

‘’I made lasagne!’’ Charity blurts out, clumsily standing up from her place in front of the oven, subtly trying to dust herself off and fix her hair (which, she realises in dismay, has also fallen victim to her haphazard attempt at cooking, and probably contains more of the bloody ingredients than the actual lasagne does) in a futile attempt to look less like someone from ‘Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook’ and more like someone who is actually capable of doing this whole responsible adult, domestic goddess thing.

‘’You made lasagne?’’ Vanessa asks, looking over her shoulder as she shrugs out of her yellow jacket and hangs it up neatly on the peg.

‘’Well, yeah…I mean, we didn’t have any plans for tea tonight, so I thought…’’ Charity gestures behind her towards the oven. ‘’Y’know…lasagne.’’

If Vanessa is surprised at Charity’s uncharacteristic attempt at domesticity, she certainly doesn’t show it. Instead, without missing a beat, she simply walks towards Charity with a smile, pauses briefly to pick a stray piece of cheese out of her hair, and kisses her gently on the cheek.

‘’It smells gorgeous.’’

‘’Well, babe, you know me. Everything I do is gorgeous.’’ Charity’s voice conveys far more confidence than she actually feels. ‘’So, you sit yourself down’’ Charity nods towards the table ‘’And I’ll plate up, yeah? Tracy has taken Johnny and Moses round to Frank’s for the night, so we’ve got the place to ourselves.’’

\-------

Charity tries desperately to be subtle as she watches Vanessa take her first mouth full of food. But she’s got a horrible feeling she’s boring a hole into Vanessa’s face with her eyes.

Her excuses and justifications for ruining something yet again are out of her mouth before Vanessa can even say anything.

‘’Okay, so I’ve never cooked lasagne before. And if it’s rubbish, yeah, you can blame Marlon and his stupid recipe, because..’’

‘’Charity.’’ Vanessa says calmly, nodding towards Charity‘s plate. ‘’Just taste it.’’

Charity sighs. She’s already mentally planning out the shameful phone call to their local takeaway and cursing herself for yet another disaster. She picks up a fork full of lasagne and suspiciously places it into her mouth as though it’s been laced with poison. _Probably bloody tastes like it_ , she thinks. And then..

‘’It’s actually…’’

‘’Amazing?’’ Vanessa raises her eyebrows, a satisfied smile on her face. ‘’I think Marlon might have a bit of competition in the kitchen.‘’ Vanessa laughs. ‘’Plus, I reckon you’d look seriously gorgeous in a chef’s uniform.’’

Charity’s relief at not messing something up for once is practically escaping out of every single pore, but she just about manages to collect herself in time to feign nonchalance and adopt her tried and tested method of sarcastic retorts.

‘’Okay, if you’ve got some sort of weird chef kink going on, then I’m going to have to stop you right there, babe. I know we played vets and hamsters that one time, but I draw the line at playing chefs and…’’ Charity pauses, searching for a conclusion to the sentence.

‘’Vegetables?’’ Vanessa finishes with a poker face, earning herself a half-hearted yet affectionate glare from Charity.

\-------

‘’Thank you for this.’’ Vanessa says, reaching out and gently catching Charity’s wrist as Charity is clearing the plates away after they’ve finished.

‘’It’s just a lasagne.’’ Charity shrugs dismissively, hoping Vanessa can’t see the pink-tinged heat which she feels defiantly rising up her cheeks.

Vanessa simply looks at her in warm silence, her head tilted slightly to one side and a half smile on her lips. She does this a lot, Charity has noticed, when there’s words stuck in the back of Charity’s throat that she so desperately wants to say out loud. Vanessa always knows. Always waits patiently for Charity to find her voice, or to simply swallow the words back down and change the subject. Either way, Vanessa is always relentlessly there ready to accept whatever Charity is able to give her.

‘’Okay, maybe it wasn’t _just_ a lasagne.’’ Charity admits quietly. ‘’It was also,..‘’ She sighs, fumbling for the words. ‘’I don’t know, a thank you. For, well, for pretty much everything. Y’know?’’

‘’I know.’’ Vanessa nods.

‘’And, well, it’s an apology too. For what I did to the one you made.’’ Charity cringes, internally berating herself as she remembers the harsh words she spoke in anger to the one person in her life who absolutely does not deserve to be on the receiving end of them.

‘’It was just a lasagne, Charity.’’ Vanessa repeats Charity’s words back to her, stands up and places herself directly in front of her, looking at her with such kindness that Charity finds herself instinctively shying away from it.

‘’Except it wasn’t _just_ a lasagne though, was it? You spent ages making it because you knew how important it was to me to have a meal with Noah and Ryan. You did it for _me_.’’ Charity takes a deep breath. ‘’So, I wanted to do _that_ ’’ Charity nods her head in the direction of the kitchen ‘’for _you_.’’

Charity forces herself to look at Vanessa then. Sees the emotion shimmering in her eyes, and knows unquestionably that Vanessa gets it. Gets _her_ , and the ridiculous ways in which she expresses her emotions.

‘’I know.’’ Vanessa reaches out, twirling one of Charity’s curls around her fingertips.

‘’Yeah?’’ Charity asks, a smile which she thought had been ripped from her years ago once again etching itself across her face.

‘’Yeah.’’ Vanessa nods. ‘’I know.’’

Vanessa‘s arms reach out, pulling Charity into a hug that she gratefully accepts, and she whispers another ‘thank you’ into Charity’s ear.

‘’Sooo..’’ Charity drawls. ‘’How about we leave the dirty dishes and go upstairs and get a bit… _dirty_ ourselves? What do you say, babe?’’

Vanessa doesn’t say anything. She simply takes Charity’s hand before leading her up the stairs.

‘’Charity.’’ Vanessa stops dead in front of her half way up, almost causing Charity to walk into the back of her, before turning round with a deadly serious expression on her face.

‘’What, babe?’’

‘’Since you’re the chef, do you want me to be a carrot, or a sprout tonight?’’

Vanessa has already turned back round and is darting the rest of the way up the stairs laughing before Charity even has time to catch her.

‘’You’re nowhere near as funny as you think you are, you know!’’ Charity shouts up the stairs after her.

But she can’t help the affectionate laugh that escapes her lips. Because Vanessa is _exactly_ as funny as she thinks she is, and yet somehow, far more amazing than she will ever realise she is.


End file.
